Making cupcakes is easy. Bake the cupcake mixture and then decorate. You will end up with a tasty cupcake but it will never look as good as a professional version. How do they do it? We reveal all the secrets to making the perfect cupcake.

KEY POINTS

INGREDIENTS
The tastiest cupcakes use butter rather than soft margarine. Both produce good results but the butter ones are noticeably tastier.

If you are using butter, as we recommend, then it will need to be at room temperature before mixing. So before you do anything else, get the butter out of the fridge, chop it up into slices on a plate and leave in a warmish room for 15 to 20 minutes.

The reason for the butter being at room temperature is that it is then easier to mix with the other ingredients. Using refrigerated butter will make the mixing very hard work.

All of the amounts in these cupcake recipes are critical.

WHAT SPECIAL KITCHEN EQUIPMENT?
Cupcake containers. Use standard cupcake or muffin sized cake containers. The foil ones are best because they provide good support but the paper ones also do a good job. They are available in most supermarkets.

Small cake / muffin cake tins. It's not necessary to use these cake tins but they do support the paper cases very well, producing nicely shaped cupcakes. See the paragraph below for more details

Most recipes for cupcakes say to add the mixture to cupcake containers and then bake for 15 to 20 minutes. But there are a whole variety of cake / muffin containers and they give significantly different results. To avoid cluttering up this recipe, the various pros and cons of the different containers are discussed here.

CLICK ANY PICTURE ON THIS PAGE TO ENLARGE IT

PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / Gas 4. Use a fork to mash up the butter until it softens a bit more. This will take two or three minutes. Add the sugar to the butter and mix it in well until both ingredients are combined. It takes a couple of minutes.

Break the eggs into a bowl and mix them lightly with a fork until the whites and yolks are combined. Pour about a third of the whisked eggs into the butter and sugar mixture and mix well. Add the next third of the eggs, mix well and then do the same for the remaining third of the eggs. Finish off mixing with a wooden spoon to remove all the larger lumps.

Now add the milk and vanilla essence to the mixture and mix well for 30 seconds or so. Don't worry about the smallish lumps in the mixture. Fold in the flower to the mixture and gently mix it in until all the ingredients are combined well.

Spoon the mixture into the cup cake containers, filling each to about two thirds full. Use a teaspoon for this and drop the mixture into the centre of the cup to avoid leaving bits around the edge. Leave the cupcakes for about five minutes to allow the mixture to settle evenly. If using a flat baking tray, ensure the cakes are kept well apart. Place in the preheated oven and bake for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Cooking time varies on the size of the cupcake. The smaller the cupcake the shorter the cooking time. They are ready when the top is a light golden brown. Their tops will spring back when lightly pressed. Another way to test if they are cooked is to insert a narrow metal spike into the middle. If it comes out "clean", the cakes are done. Take the cupcakes from the oven and leave to cool for 20 minutes before decorating.

Click on one of the toppings below to see how to make them:

Butter Icing

Cream Cheese Icing

Click any picture below to create that particular cupcake.
Nutella Swirl	CLICK HERE FOR OUR PICTURE GALLERY OF CUPCAKE PICTURES. THEY WILL GIVE YOU LOTS OF INSPIRATION!	Mini-cupcakes
Coconut Topped Cupcakes		Marshmallow Filled

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